Sam's Snippets
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: A series of unrelated oneshots centred around Sam Witwicky. WARNING: These are all single, self contained stories thst do NOT lead into each other. If you try to read them as one story, you will get confused.
1. Sam's Sacrifice

Sam's Sacrifice

Sam's Sacrifice.

Summary: When Sam pushed the AllSpark into Megatron's chest, he saved the Earth and many other worlds from Megatron's malign influence. However, the one person he cannot save is himself.

Rating: M for safety

Warnings: Character death, mention of blood and injury.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not me.

Sam's Sacrifice.

A/N: **Bold Type: the Essence. **_Italics: _Bumblebee's thoughtspeak.

Ratchet, Bumblebee, and a doctor asked for Sam by SecDef Keller stood by the bed in Ratchet's medbay which contained Sam.

He was barely recognisable. His lustrous brown hair had all fallen out, and what of his skin was not covered in burns and ulcerated sores was wrinkled and grey. He had lost weight, and shook every so often, each shake damaging more of his thin skin. He coughed: the mucus was bloody, as both his lung tissue and gums broke down.

Nobody had realised that when the AllSpark was destroyed, some of its great energy had been discharged in a blast of radiation. It was two weeks since the battle of Mission City, and Sam was close to death. Radiation poisoning had taken its toll, his tissues breaking down and unable to repair themselves. The human and Cybertronian medic argued about many things but agreed on one: nothing either of them could do could save Sam.

Not even the AllSpark Essence could save Sam now: it had resided in Sam until a few days ago, when it had fled its ailing vessel into the form of his guardian, Bumblebee. Bumblebee had always had a special relationship with the AllSpark, he was one of the Sensitives who had been able to communicate with the Essence. He had pleaded with it to heal Sam before it had transferred.

**That is not possible. Organic damage cannot be repaired. Cannot.** it had replied.

"_Is there nothing you can do?"_ he had asked. _"Could you create a mechanical body to transfer him to?"_

**No. It is forbidden to replace the body now. The organic life has as much right to be as the mechanical. It is forbidden to replace one living form with another.** it had told him.

Now Bumblebee faced losing the boy whom he had been both guardian and friend to. His body contained the power of the AllSpark, but he was powerless to save Sam.

Sam's lips moved. His voice spoke: pained, harsh-sounding, quiet.

"Bee?" He couched again: blood flecked his lips.

"Don't talk!" Bumblebee said. Sam shook his head.

"No…time."

Bumblebee wanted nothing more than to pick Sam up and hold him at that moment, but he did not dare: Sam's skin would have torn on contact, causing him more excruciating pain.

"Bee…love you." Sam said, reaching out one burned hand towards his guardian: a needle in his ankle was attached to a drip with morphine: Sam was not always this lucid, but for now, he seemed to know who he was, and who his visitors were.

Mikaela had stopped coming: seeing Sam deteriorate day by day was too painful to her. She still sent messages via Bumblebee in case Sam did have a lucid period, so Bumblebee delivered the message, for it was the same every day.

"Mikaela sends her love, Sam. She's promised to look after your parents."

"Thanks.." He coughed again. "Love…her. Bee…love you." The hand was still stretched towards him, and Bee briefly lay his speaker grille on it to hum briefly: Sam smiled and let the hand fall.

Then he began to shake and his eyes rolled back in his head: he coughed again, this time an alarming volume of red fluid exploded from his mouth. Bumblebee was pulled aside, the two medics working to keep Sam alive.

A few minutes later, Ratchet pulled back.

"My scans indicate that Sam is dead. I'm sorry, Bumblebee." He said, The human medic also nodded.

Bumblebee was about to raise his head to the sky and cry out in grief when the Essence spoke to him.

**Now it can be done. Now he can be one of you.**

"_What?" Bumblebee asked. "You said it was forbidden!"_

**It is forbidden to replace one living form with another. **the Essence stated.** This form no longer lives. Now it can be replaced.**

"_You can give him a new body? Sam can live?"_ Bumblebee asked.

**A pattern is needed, but he can live.** the Essence told him.

Bumblebee knew what the Essence meant. Without the physical form, of the Cube, the Essence had nothing to base Sam's new form on.

"_Use mine!"_ he told it without hesitation. He moved forwards, placing his big hand on Sam's ruined form.

The moment his hand made contact, Sam's body exploded in a bright white light: the human looked away and Ratchet automatically activated his heaviest optic filters and shuttered his optics.

When the light died down, a protoform Cybertronian lay on the floor. Bumblebee was startled: his optics met Ratchet's and Ratchet nodded as Sam tried to get up.

As Bumblebee folded down into his alt form, Ratchet grabbed Sam and inserted a data lead from his wrist into a dorsal dataport. Usually, Ratchet would not do such a thing, but Sam, in protoform, would have an overriding instinct to scan a disguise. As he knew neither how to walk nor scan, this was easier, and Ratchet was sure Sam would not mind. He transferred the information on how to scan, and how to transform, directly into his processors, then disconnected and stood back.

Sam scanned Bumblebee from his half-reclining position, tumbled to the floor, and folded into Camaro form. A moment later, they both resumed bipedal form.

"What? What happened?" asked one of the two identical mechs.

"Sam? Once your body had died, the AllSpark could give you a new one." Said the other.

Ratchet was giddy with relief. He hated death, but Sam had not quite died.

"Bumblebee? Teach Sam how to change his colours, or this is going to be really confusing." He said.


	2. Too Useful To Waste

Sam's Snippets

Sam's Snippets

Too Useful To Waste.

Summary: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons know how resourceful and inventive Sam Witwicky was. When Soundwave finds him dying after a battle, he wonders if he has a way to save Sam so his skills are not lost.

Warnings: Character death, minor blood and gore.

Rating: M for safety.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount. I make no claim to the contrary.

Too Useful To Waste.

It was after the battle that Sam Witwicky was found, broken and dying, and it was Soundwave who found him.

The Autobots had shielded him on the ground during the fighting, covering all ground routes into his location, but it was Sam's bad luck that Starscream had been looking for an opportunity, and seen one. All the Autobots, and Sam himself, were concentrating on the ground troops, temporarily underestimating the threat from the air.

It was the last time Sam would make that mistake.

Starscream had stooped down, like the bird of prey his alt-form was named for, but he was in robot form, not in plane form. His hands had lashed out and scooped up the human before anyone even realised what he was doing, and he pulled out of the steep dive, heading up and away with incredible agility and frightening speed.

Starscream was impatient, however, to rejoin the battle, and was not interested in taking prisoners, but wanted to get back to the battle. He figured that gravity would take care of his squishy victim, and dropped him, making sure there was a nice long drop onto an abandoned parking lot. Then, he rejoined the fray.

Sam had not died on impact, but he was dying when Soundwave found him. Soundwave thought that the human could have had valuable information, and wished Starscream had thought this through before dropping him like that.

He engaged his scans, in case his initial suspicion had been incorrect, but no, the boy was unconscious, his life signs slowing and becoming more erratic. Soundwave had scanned enough humans since arriving to know what was normal and not normal for humans.

However, even he checked twice when he found something that was definitely not normal for humans.

It had to be the boy's contact with the AllSpark during its destruction, he surmised. That had caused the human's heart to be infused with Spark energy. The AllSpark energy within him was not strong enough to generate a new body for him, but the protospark was instinctively trying to coalesce into a Spark, maybe in hope of going into the heart itself, as if it were an organic Spark chamber.

That meant there was a chance that the human's life and skills and knowledge need not be wasted after all.

Soundwave's hands were composed of an incredible assortment of interchangeable tools – like a Swiss army knife, but infinitely more versatile. Extruding the two tools he needed – one from each index finger- he used the sharp scalpel to slit the human's body open from neck to groin. Sam was too far gone to be aware of it, even when Soundwave cut away his ribs and the musculature around them.

Sam had merely minutes, if not seconds to live.

There it was, the Spark energy glittering over Sam's quivering, still-beating heart. Soundwave touched his probe to it, turned on the current. The Spark energy was drawn to the electrified rod, drawn up it to the bulb at the top, where it coalesced into a Spark. Soundwave was relieved: Sam's body had not been strong enough for the energy to have the time to do this itself, Soundwave had merely speeded it up, but he had worried that he'd arrived too late, and that the energy might have started to dissipate as Sam's body had begun to die. That seemed to be an invalid concern, he noted, as the last of the Spark energy joined the small but hot and very bright spark in the bulb. Soundwave activated the force-field to keep it from dissipating and turned off the current.

He lifted the bulb, no longer interested in the body of Sam next to him, which was now inert, the heart had stopped beating. Reaching into his chest compartment he searched for and located an empty cassette. He manipulated it into robot form, found it to be a non-flier, triggered the opening of the chest plates. He lowered the probe till it was touching the Spark chamber, released the force field, and activated a negative current. Drawn by the current and by the Spark's own survival instinct, the Spark shot down the probe and entered the Spark chamber with a small sizzling noise.

The new Casseticon twitched slightly, but Soundwave closed its chest plates and folded it back into cassette form. As a blank, it had had no energy stores, so would need to recharge before it could online. How the boy would react on finding out the manner of his saving, Soundwave could not predict, but what mattered is that he had been saved. Any potential his new Spark might possess had not been wasted.

His sharp audios detected something approaching, and the vibration frequency told him that they were Autobots. Folding into his SUV form, he accelerated away with his prize.

Soundwave knew the vibration frequencies of the Autobot's voices, too, so when he picked up the sound of the agonised keen a few minutes later, Soundwave knew that it was Bumblebee who had found Sam's physical remains.


	3. By Any Other Name

Sam's Snippets

By Any Other Name.

Summary. The AllSpark has a new vessel, but what happens when this one gets damaged? Disliking the alternative, it repairs the damage in its own fashion.

Rating: M for safety.

Warnings: Character death, mild torture, blood and gore, Seeker-smut.

Disclaimer: Transformer's ain't mine. It belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount.

A/N Based on ideas bounced around by myself and my beta, MeowthTwo. For the record, although he is not named, the medic is MeowthTwo's character Dr Syn, used with permission. Thanks, MeowthTwo!

By Any Other Name.

Sam screamed as Swindle pressed down on his lower leg, and

he heard and felt the bones break.

Swindle was asking Sam for information he didn't possess, the frequency of the forcefield over the Autobot base. Sam had already tried to tell Swindle that he didn't know. The problem was that Swindle had chosen to disbelieve him.

"Tell me what I want to know!" the red mech said impatiently, lowering his single optic until it was mere inches from Sam's face. "Perhaps if you do, I will be merciful, and kill you quickly!"

Sam groaned. Swindle had started on his upper arms, breaking first the lower limbs, and then the upper. The lower leg he had just broken was the second lower leg he'd gone for, and Sam knew Swindle would start on his upper legs next. Didn't Swindle realise that with all the pain he'd inflicted on Sam that he'd be talking by now if he knew the answer?

As Swindle positioned his clawed hand on Sam's lower abdomen, about to slide it down onto Sam's leg, the door behind him opened. Sam was too far gone in pain to notice as Starscream walked in, but Swindle turned to look.

"Just what is going on here?" Starscream demanded.

"I am interrogating the human prisoner, Lord Starscream." Swindle told him. "I tried interrogating the Autobot first, he was equally recalcitrant."

"The human? Sam Witwicky?" said Starscream, looking horrified. "Swindle, I did not order this, I did not even know they were here! Who ordered this?" Starscream was so angry he was physically shaking.

"Nobody, sir! I…I used my initiative." Swindle said. The look Starscream gave him was so angry that Swindle pulled back. Unfortunately, that involved shifting his weight, and one hand was still on Sam's abdomen. The weight shift unintentionally brought much of Swindle's weight to bear onto Sam's body.

Sam's agonised scream masked the sound of shattering bones and tearing flesh. Sam passed out, the pain beyond his capability to bear.

Starscream moved forwards and grabbed Swindle by the neck, forcibly pulling him off Sam, and databursting for the medic. Starscream gave a low moan as he saw Sam's ruined body, and saw carefully constructed plans, plans that may have saved the Seekers in particular, and the Decepticons in the long run, disappear in a pool of spreading blood.

Starscream had hidden the severity of the fuel shortages from all except Soundwave, and Soundwave had agreed to keep the situation secret for the sake of stability. The American Government had gotten wise to them, and now no plane was fuelled without it first being tested to be sure that it was what it said it was. As technology had been acquired from Sector 7 when it was disbanded, every military Base had been given a Spark-detector. Last time Starscream had tried to fuel up, he'd been attacked and only barely escaped with his life.

Thus, Starscream had decided that any Autobot prisoners would be kept healthy and not mistreated. Then he could use them to bargain with the Autobots – their warrior for access to aircraft fuel. The Autobots didn't have many filers, but the fact they had a couple also meant they had aircraft fuel. Sam would have been treated the same way, the Autobots were fond of their pet squishy, but unfortunately the converse was also true, and Starscream feared that with the death of Sam, the Autobots would never agree to any form of negotiations or bargaining techniques now.

He threw Swindle from him as the medic came over. "Get out of my sight!" he hissed at the torturer, and crouched to enter the small cell properly.

The medic squeezed in beside him, and scanned Sam.

"He has broken bones and several ruptured internal organs. I fear that he will not survive." The doctor said.

Starscream crouched by the unconscious human, and carefully scooped his mangled form into his hands.

"There's nothing you can do?" he asked. The medic shook his head.

"I'm sorry, it would take a miracle to save him now."

Starscream gave a small keen, earning himself a strange look from the medic, who obviously wondered why Starscream was mourning the death of a human who had been a very large thorn in the Decepticon's side for quite some time.

Starscream suddenly felt Sam grow warm in his hands, too warm and too quickly. Looking down, he saw that Sam was outlined by a sparkling network of blue. Starscream, with a fine sense of self-preservation, was about to drop Sam and rapidly back out when he found that he couldn't: it was as if the human were glued to his hand. Then he fell, as the network shot out to envelop him in the same way it had enveloped Sam.

All the medic could do was watch as the blue network spread and expanded to a blue glow.

Starscream's panic subsided as he heard a beautiful singing. Somehow it was calming, and he felt a great sense of peace. Somehow, he knew that whatever was happening would not put him in any danger. He could feel something was happening to Sam, but couldn't see, so didn't know what. Not that he currently cared: the stillness was something Starscream realised he'd been missing, or had never had: he wasn't sure which, but he was quite happy to bask in it now.

As the blue glow ebbed and subsided, the medic stared at the two identical-looking Seekers lying face-down in the cell.

"Which one of you is which, and what in all Pit just happened?" he asked.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam himself was mainly aware of one thing when the warm light drew back from his limbs and calmed: he was no longer in pain. He opened his eyes to see Starscream lying beside him looking as groggy as he felt….and the same size as him? He heard the doctor's comment, but only seemed to take in the second part of it.

"I dunno." He said, and he idly thought his voice sounded all wrong. "Whatever it was shrunk Starscream though."

Sam saw Starscream's optics unshutter, and then shutter and unshutter again rapidly about three times. Then they stayed open and fixed on Sam.

"My scans indicate….that that was AllSpark energy." said Starscream in a soft, awed voice, still with his optics riveted on Sam. Then he continued to speak.

"I haven't shrunk, Sam, you have grown." He said. "It seemed the AllSpark wanted you to live. You're one of us now, Sam."

"One of you?" Sam asked. That explained the lack of pain, the size thing, the voice. "I'm a..a Cybertronian?" he asked for confirmation.

Starscream got up to a crouching position and shuffle-hopped over to Sam.

"More than just a Cybertronian, Sam." said Starscream, reaching out a hand towards his back: Sam watched it nervously. "You're something special now, Sam. You're a Seeker."

As Starscream said the last sentence, Sam felt the hand touch and begin to stroke the wings he hadn't until that moment realised he possessed.

He found the contact pleasurable, in fact it was verging on the arousing, and he was enjoying the touch way too much. He frantically thought of something to say, something that might encourage Starscream to stop his actions, because the feelings it was sending through him were way too distracting, and he was sure the effect the touch was having was not the effect Starscream intended.

"Where's Bumblebee?" he asked, as he recalled that his yellow friend had been taken in with him.

Starscream, too, recalled Swindle mentioning that there was an Autobot prisoner too, that he had tried interrogating him…oh no! He nodded curtly at the doctor. "Go check on him and bring him to the medical bay, Sam and I will follow."

As the doctor left, Sam's head cleared, for Starscream had thankfully stopped stroking his wings. The Decepticon leader stood.

"Well, come on, we have to get to the med bay before Bumblebee expires of old age." Starscream stated impatiently. Sam pushed up, but found he couldn't stand.

"I might be able to comply if my new legs didn't have at least one joint more than I am used to!" he complained.

Starscream gave a low chuckle, and bent to help support Sam.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

After much stumbling and cursing on Sam's part, they got to the med bay, and Starscream sat Sam down on a berth next to where the doctor was treating Bumblebee. Sam gasped, and Starscream turned and gasped too.

Bumblebee was in a state. His armour was dented and gouged, energon leaking from a dozen places. One optic was completely gone, just bare wires sparking in the damaged socket. More wires and some cables were sprouting from all Bumblebee's joints. The doctor quite evidently had his work cut out for him.

"Bumblebee!" Sam said, reaching one of his hands towards Bumblebee. If his hands had still been in the same proportion to his body as when he was a human, he would not have reached, but Sam, as a Seeker, now had long and powerful arms, and he lay a hand gently on Bumblebee's dented and gouged chest plates.

There was a crackle, and suddenly Sam was haloed in blue light, light that collected and flowed down to cover Bumblebee. As the doctor and Starscream watched, the plating smoothed out, the gouge edges moved as if alive, closing the holes, the wires reconnected and tucked away, the energon stopped flowing and dried up. At his head, blue light played over the empty socket, and a new optic formed and glowed the usual hot blue as the wires beneath reconnected. As the blue light died away and Sam removed his hand, Bumblebee sat up.

The doctor spoke first, shaking his head at Sam.

"Are you trying to put me out of a job?" he asked good-naturedly.

"Where's Sam?" asked Bumblebee.

"That _is_ Sam." said Starscream, sounding awed. "He is _Seeker_-Sam….and _AllSpark_-Sam."

"It's true." Sam told Bumblebee, holding out a hand. "It's me, Sam." Sam explained what had happened, and Starscream and the doctor vouched for what he was saying. Bumblebee was still a little sceptical until Sam whispered some facts only he and Bumblebee were privy to, and then Bumblebee believed him. He tried to rise, but the doctor pushed him back onto the berth.

"No, you need to recharge!" the medic said. He then turned to Sam, nodding his head respectfully.

"As do you, though you are not as exhausted as the other." he said.

"I will stay with Sam, he has much to learn about what it is to be a Seeker." Starscream said. He held his arm out.

"Seeker-Sam - or should I call you AllSpark-Sam?" he asked.

"Um…neither, just 'Sam' will do." Sam said, grabbing hold of Starscream's arm and pulling himself to a wobbly standing position.

"Well, whatever." Starscream continued. "Let me offer you the hospitality of my private quarters, even Skywarp cannot get in there due to some inventions of mine, so you and I can talk and recharge without fear of interruption." Starscream paused long enough to send a databurst to Swindle, ordering him to clean out the cell he had found Sam in…the one with the pooled water, slimy mud, insects, and slimy organic things growing on the walls.

"Um-okay." Sam said, allowing Starscream to slide one of his own long arms around Sam's narrow Seeker waist for support. One of Sam's own arms grasped at Starscream's shoulders. Starscream patiently helped Sam walk the short distance to his private hangar, explaining how to move the joints and shift the weight from one leg to another. By the time they got there, Sam figured he was getting then hang of it. Starscream databurst a code to the door, which slid open, and he led Sam inside.

Sam's new optics darted about the cavernous space. There were several desks, some with some strange looking equipment on, some chairs, several lockers that must have been for storage, and a huge berth that looked big enough for at lest three Seekers to lie on. It was towards this that Starscream led him.

"Here, Sam, sit down and make yourself comfortable. One of the first things you need to know is your own body. If you are going to fly –which I will teach you how to do tomorrow – you must know yourself." He helped Sam sit, then moved around behind him. Sam felt hands touch him in sensitive places again, sensitive places he didn't even know he had. He heard Starscream talking as the hands touched and stroked.

"These are your tail fins, for stability…and of course these are your wings, to catch and direct the air you fly through….these, Sam are your engines and your thrusters, they give you your power and speed."

Sam felt those gentle, sensuous hands glide around to his sides and shoulders.

"These, Sam, are your vents, for cooling your engines and this is your special radar-absorbent and drag-reducing surface…"

Starscream was careful to show Sam all the places he would need to know about for interfacing as well as for flying, making sure his touches were sensual and stimulating. Sam was modelled on Starscream, a typical Seeker after all, and Starscream knew well enough what touches where would drive _him_ insane with desire. Seekers were not just good at and enjoyed flying, but also interfacing, and frequently were known to do both at the same time. Again, Sam was modelled on Starscream himself, and he _knew_ he was a fine figure of a Seeker even if he said so himself. Sam's Seeker body looked pretty hot to him!

In any case, Seeker-Sam?…AllSpark-Sam?...plain old Sam?...no, it did not matter, no matter which name you gave him, there was no getting away from the fact that Sam _was_ the AllSpark now, and there was no way Starscream was going to miss out on interfacing with the AllSpark!

Even Megatron, who had been the biggest bragger about his conquests when he had lived, had done nothing that would top THAT!


	4. If I Could Turn Back Time

Sam's Snippets.

If I Could Turn Back Time.

Summary: Sam's contact with the AllSpark has extended his lifespan a little, but all things eventually come to an end, and his family and friends gather at his bedside to say goodbye.

Rating: T

Warning: Character death.

Disclaimer. If Transformers were mine, I'd be rich. It's not though, it belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount.

A/N: 1 joor is about 6.5 hours. Thanks to Mdnytryder for betareading and corrections.

If I Could Turn Back Time.

Bumblebee had been dreading this day from the moment he had spoken up in Mission City, asking to remain with the seventeen-year-old boy with whom he had forged a special friendship.

Blue optics fixed on a lined face that still looked surprisingly young, despite the fact that the owner was now one hundred and twenty years older than when the Autobot scout had first met him. The skin was also surprisingly free of blemishes and age spots, and was not as thin as might have been expected, the hands that lay on the sheets were free of arthritic deformity. The physical age of Sam's body in some ways appeared to be a quarter of his actual age.

Bumblebee knew the reason why: the AllSpark essence within Sam was repairing the damage, even the basic wear and tear caused by everyday life. However, the AllSpark had informed Bumblebee that it could not continue to repair Sam in this way, and Bumblebee knew it was time to say goodbye to his human friend.

He had known it was coming, human lifespans were painfully short compared to a Cybertronian's. Bumblebee knew that the AllSpark's intervention had given him more time with Sam, and kept Sam healthier and more active than he might otherwise have been at such an advanced age . However that didn't stop Bumblebee's Spark from aching like all pit.

Sam, too was aware that his lifetime was coming to an end. He had arranged for Ratchet to oversee his care, and as he lay in bed waiting for his life to reach it's natural and long-overdue conclusion, he was surrounded by his two sons and three daughters, his seventeen grandchildren, his thirty-four grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

All of Sam's offspring had benefited from his exposure to the AllSpark's power in a similar way as Sam had himself. Obviously, lingering effects of the AllSpark on his own cells had been passed on, for even his oldest child, who was one hundred and ten, looked to be closer to seventy, and all his adult descendants did not look their true ages.

It was not just Sam's human family who were present: almost all of the Autobots on Earth had gathered.:Bumblebee was at the head of the bed, along with the mech and femme he and Arcee had produced. Arcee had been very understanding, and had left the rearing of the Sparklings to Bumblebee and Sam. The pair had a deep affection for each other, and were as close to bonded as a Cybertronian and a human could be. Sam considered Fireflight and Topgear as much his offspring as his flesh and blood family.

Bumblebee recalled that Fireflight's sparking had been fraught with difficulties from almost the moment she went into her Sparkling body. She had been fretful and cranky and nobody could work out why. Even Fireflight, when taught to speak, could only describe herself as unsettled and needing something she could not define. It had eventually taken Bumblebee communicating with the AllSpark Essence to discover what was wrong: as unusual as it was, the two ground-based forms had somehow managed to spawn a Spark who was born to fly. Fireflight was sky-hungry.

Ratchet had immediately contacted Thundercracker at the Decepticon base, thankful that the two sides had come to an uneasy truce. This itself was due to the desire of the younglings of both sides to interact. They did not understand factions and the ancient war, at least not outside of play. They wanted to play with each other, and couldn't understand why they were forbidden from keeping company together. They disobeyed their elder's ban, and were constantly sneaking off to meet up. Starscream himself had taken matters into his own hands and almost precipitated another war when he, his trine mates, the Coneheads, and the Rainmaker trine had all swooped down, caught up either one or two of the Autobot younglings each, and flew them off to their base.

When Ratchet had desperately contacted Dr Syn while trying to persuade the angry Creators to let him try negotiation before storming the Decepticon base, Skywarp, who had warped ahead with two of the youngsters, including Elita and Optimus' femme, Terra Prima, was called upon to talk.

"We will not harm your younglings. We may be Decepticons but even we do not wage war against nonadults." He said. "We just got fed up of our own young crying to us that they were bored and wanted to go and play with yours. Don't think it is better to have them where someone keep an optic on them, rather than risk them running off to join their friends and getting into who knows what trouble? It'll give _all_ of our audios a rest from the complaining. We'll bring them back in a few joors, although next time, they can all go to _your_ base."

Once the Creators had calmed down, they all agreed that it was better to allow the younglings to visit each other supervised rather than risk them sneaking out unsupervised. So an official truce was drawn up between the two warring sides. As a result, Ratchet had been able to procure a ready-made Seeker body for Fireflight from the talented craftmech, Dr Syn. Thundercracker had downloaded the information the new Seeker needed to know in order to fly. As there were few flying types amongst the Autobots, nobody was particularly surprised when Fireflight had returned to the Autobot base about fifty years later announcing that she planned to bond with Thundercracker's mech offspring, Stormcloud.

Bumblebee came out of his reminiscing as Sam beckoned him closer. As Bumblebee bent and lowered his head, Sam reached up to kiss the metal face.

Then he did the same with all of his children, including Fireflight and Topgear, and his grand and great grandchildren: Bumblebee himself could sense the energy in the room. It was almost time for Sam to go, he was saying goodbye.

Once he'd finished, he thanked everyone, and smiled, and suddenly he was gone, as if a switch had been flicked. Bumblebee was silent for a moment, then raised his head and began to sing.

Learning about human funeral rites had given him the idea: Cybertronians didn't commemorate death in this way, but because Sam was human, Bumblebee wanted to do this for him. The words were not his, they were part of a poem written by another, all about the Sparks of the dead finding their journey to the Essence unhindered, and the path to the Matrix open to them. Bumblebee had merely put the words to music of his own creation. Sam didn't possess a Spark, may not have believed in the Cybertronian Matrix, but the sentiment was still there. As he sang, the humans gathered around the bed, some of them openly weeping. The Autobots stood there, just watching, remembering Sam in their own manner.

Preoccupied with his song, Bumblebee was one of the last to notice the body light up and glow with AllSpark energy. The humans backed off a little, and those who didn't move back far enough were pulled further back by the Autobots. It was Fireflight who tapped Bumblebee on the shoulder, and then turned his head physically with one of her big hands to make him look. Bumblebee's song wavered, then changed, singing questioningly, coaxingly, as the glow around Sam grew brighter and brighter.

Bumblebee's song stopped at about the same time as the glow faded, and left behind the same Sam Witwicky Bumblebee had first met…smooth skinned, brown haired, and looking about 17 years old.

The silence was so thick it could almost be touched as everyone stared at the young boy that until recently had been an old man. He stirred, and Bumblebee stooped to put his face near.

"Bee?" asked Sam, putting his hands out and staring at them.

"What happened?"

This was precisely what Bumblebee has asked the AllSpark with his song, so he did have an answer.

"Repairing you was requiring a greater and more constant output of energy. The AllSpark Essence could not totally remake you while you were still alive. That is why it had to let you die."

"Remake me?" Sam asked. Bumblebee nodded.

"The AllSpark Essence has learned much about organic life by living in you, Sam, and has worked out how it could regenerate you from your aged form into what you are now. It read your genetic information, used it to recreate this new body from the old – and it seems the AllSpark Essence has a memory of you from when you first held it, and used this memory as a pattern to build your new body. This body is identical to the one you had then – although I do hope you still have your memories of the last one hundred and twenty years or things will get complicated."

Sam laughed, throwing back the bed covers and standing up. "I still remember everything, don't worry." he told them. His human family all suddenly began to move and speak at once, converging on Sam like an unstoppable tide. After five minutes, Sam pulled back from the crowd.

"Give me some time, won't you?" he asked. "It's kinda overwhelming for me as well."

"Yes, grandpa." said one of his grandchildren, who now looked of an age to be Sam's own mother.

Bumblebee hummed happily to himself as Sam circulated amongst everyone there. The AllSpark Essence worked in mysterious ways, but Bumblebee could not be happier. He still had his Sam, and that was all that mattered.


	5. Switching Places

Switching Places.

Summary: What if Megatron didn't die when Sam pushed the AllSpark into his chest? What if something else happened to make Megatron less of a threat?

Rating: T for language.

Disclaimer. This belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not I.

A/N: As it changes the end of the movie, consider this AU. Very short. Oh yes, and cracky…

Switching Places.

As Sam saw the silver giant still crawling towards him, spitting threats and growling, Sam knew that the moment he pushed the cube into Optimus' chest, he would be doomed. The Cube would be safe from Megatron's designs, consumed by the same reaction that would kill the Prime, but it was likely that Megatron would then turn his anger back on Sam, and he knew his death might be quick, but would be unlikely to be painless.

As Megatron clawed towards him again, Sam spotted the hole in the overlord's chest. Seized by an idea, ignoring Optimus' warning cry, he ran over and rammed the Cube into Megatron's chest.

Sam felt himself go rigid as the Cube met and merged with the energy of Megatron's Spark. The silver behemoth roared in anger and pain, Sam's vision was suddenly obscured by a bright flare of light. He felt faint, dizzy, then felt himself spinning, whirling into the light.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Optimus watched as the human and his opponent were both briefly haloed in light from the AllSpark. Sam crumpled on the ground, and Optimus watched as Megatron crumpled beside him, noting that there was still light in Megatron's chest. As it ebbed, Optimus saw, disbelieving, that the AllSpark energy had repaired the damage wrought by the Air Force, and as he saw Megatron's optics flicker back to life, he moved the downed human and stood between them, not understanding how, why, the energies had not destroyed his brother. No matter: for now it looked like he would have to fight him again.

Megatron raised one hand to his head, let out a groan.

"Ooowww!" he said. Optimus blinked, rarely had he heard his brother express pain with anything less than a bellow. Megatron's optics looked around, settling on Optimus, who tensed, ready to fight and defend himself and those around him.

"Oww, _shit!"_ Megatron said. Optimus stared. Something here was very wrong. Why was his brother using human cuss words? Had the AllSpark scrambled his processors?

He was distracted by a grunt from behind him. Not taking his optics off Megatron, Optimus said "Sam! Are you well?"

"My head hurts, big guy, and why do you seem so much smaller?" Megatron asked. Then from behind him, Optimus heard Sam shouting.

"What have you DONE to me? What am I doing in this disgusting, organic, frail THING?"

Optimus turned, optics wide as his processors registered the statements that seemed so alien to the bodies they had come from, and worked out what must have happened. He stared at the human who was slumped on the floor, unused to standing in that body, then swung back to face Megatron, who was still lying on the ground for the exact same reason, was staring at his own hand and was saying "But…what happened…Optimus, what's going on? What's happened to me?"

"Sam," Optimus said, addressing the silver mech before him. "I believe the AllSpark knew that Megatron would have to be stopped, but was reluctant to kill. It had always been a _giver_ of life, I can understand why it would be reluctant to destroy a life it created, but not wish to leave him free to kill more. I believe it decided both your life and Megatron's could continue, but it swapped your minds into each other's bodies. Sorry, Sam, I guess this'll be a shock to you, but you're young, flexible, you'll adapt. given time. You'll just have to learn how to live as a Cybertronian."

He turned back to the human, who had gone white and was shaking. Optimus couldn't quite keep the small smile from his face as he addressed him.

"There is no doubt that this is the least dangerous form to give _you_, my brother," Optimus stated. "However, just as Sam will have to learn to live as a Cybertronian, so you, Megatron, will have to learn to live as a human."


	6. A Last Comfort

Sam's Snippets.

A Last Comfort.

Summary: When Sam finds one of the Decepticons dying after a battle, he does the only thing he can for them.

Rating: T

Warnings: Character death.

Disclaimer: Not mine, the rights to the characters and universe belong to Paramount/Dreamworks and Takara/Hasbro.

A/N: Matrix: Transformer version of heaven. Pit: Transformer version of hell.

A Last Comfort.

As the rest of the Autobots set off in pursuit of the rest of the Decepticons, a near-silence settled on the devastated section of town.

A lone human figure looked out, and watched the departing figures. Sam Witwicky knew he'd been left here because chasing the remaining Decepticons was dangerous, and knew that it would not be too long before Bumblebee dropped out of the chase. Once it was established the Deceptions really _were_ retreating, not just pretending to, the yellow Autobot scout would come back to pick him up. All the same, Sam felt left out. This was _his_ planet, and he couldn't even help to defend it. Besides, with settling mech bodies and falling masonry and nobody else around, the civilian humans having been successfully evacuated before the fight started in earnest, it was _creepy_.

A sound of scraping metal to Sam's right made him turn, and his eyes fell upon a twisted-looking heap of white, black, and silver metal that lay sprawled in the middle of the road. Although it was severely battered, missing an arm, and its legs no longer looked able to support it, the spiked head and other clawed hand, plus the now-damaged stencilled letters on its hide meant Sam immediately recognised the figure. It was the first Cybertronian to deliberately expose its true form to Sam, the first Decepticon to trouble him, and Sam moved over to look at the sprawled form of Barricade. How odd it was to think that this nemesis would never trouble him again.

The scraping sounded again, and Sam froze as he realised that Barricade's head was moving. Sam backed up two steps: he had been a fool to think that Barricade was dead. He eyed the mech warily, half expecting Barricade to leap up and attack him, despite the damage to his frame. He saw the optic-shutters lifting, noticed that only one optic was lit up, the other remaining dark. That one functional optic moved, and focused on Sam.

"So, you've come to gloat at me in my defeat, I see," Barricade said. His already harsh voice sounded weaker than Sam remembered, more throaty, and Sam could hear the pain in Barricade's voice. He supposed losing an arm and having your legs crushed _would_ hurt.

"Actually, I'm not," Sam said, stung by the accusation. "I'm not like that, I don't take pleasure in seeing people hurt or dying, not like Trent."

He surprised himself with his last comment, he had been intending to say _'not like you' _but it had just come out differently. Perhaps, Sam thought, because he honestly didn't know Barricade well enough to be able to make that sort of judgement about him. Not that he knew Trent that well either, though he had his suspicions about Trent enjoying seeing others in pain, at least. Anyway, Trent wasn't here.

"Then why are you here?" the Decepticon asked.

"Because the others think it's too dangerous to take me with you as they chase your friends away. Because they think I'm too small and too vulnerable to help fight for my own world." Sam said, anger creeping into his voice.

"My friends? No, they are no more my friends than _you_ are." Barricade rasped. "We merely shared the same goals. I'm not friends with arrogant Seekers _or_ halfwit tanks. I _do_ have _standards_." He paused, refocusing on Sam. "So, despite your size you have courage? You want to fight but cannot?" He chuckled. "Take comfort from this though, human boy, in spite of your lack of armaments or defence, you have caused Starscream much grief, knowing that you are even still alive, and that you and your Autobot allies still outwit him. Starscream knows you have a good brain, and it is that intellect that scares him."

The optic abruptly died, and Sam stepped forward and touched the metal cheek.

"Barricade?" he cried in alarm. "Barricade?" Sam tapped on the Decepticon's face, and let out a breath as the optic brightened again. Barricade's toothy mouth opened again in another weak laugh.

"So, it's strangely fitting, though ironic, that my Spark-companion will be a squishy who is an enemy," he said.

"Spark-companion?" Sam repeated in confusion.

"The one who will stand or sit with me until I die. Or did you intend to go?"

"Die? You won't die, Ratchet can heal you," Sam said in alarm.

"No, I think when Ratchet gets back, it will be too late. I feel my Spark flickering now. Will you stay with me, Sam? I would not like to die alone."

"Look, Ratchet will be back any minute you'll see," Sam said in hope. "I'll stay with you till Ratchet gets back, okay?"

"Agreed," Barricade said.

"What did you mean when you said it was fitting that I should be your spark-companion?" Sam asked Barricade, for something to talk about.

"I am a warrior, Sam. My Spark-companion of choice would be another warrior, somebody who is courageous, loyal, clever, a fighter, maybe a tactician or problem-solver. Were you Cybertronian, Sam, you _would_ be fighting. Your courage is obvious, as is your loyalty to your world and your friends. Squishy you may be, enemy you may be, but you are a more fitting Spark-companion than Starscream would ever be, or any of his other lackeys." Venom briefly strengthened Barricade's voice, and he briefly raised his head again. Then it slumped, and Sam knelt as Barricade began to speak again, so quietly that Sam almost missed it.

"Had things been different, we would have been friends, and I would have been proud to call you friend."

Sam knew that Barricade was right, that he was dying, and that even Ratchet probably couldn't save him now. Sam could do nothing more but carry out Barricade's last wish, to be his Spark-companion so he would not die alone. Sam bent so he could talk into the mech's audio.

"I would be proud to call you friend too, Barricade," Sam said. "Maybe it's too late for Ratchet to save you, but it's not too late for us to become friends, if you would do me the honour. What reason do we have now to stay enemies?"

"Very well." whispered Barricade. "I can approach the gate to the Matrix, or maybe for me it will be the Pit - with my friend by my side to see me go. Stay with me, keep me company until my Spark departs my body, friend."

Sam saw the optic gutter and die.

"Barricade?" he asked in concern.

"Touch my face, Sam, let me feel you, my systems are closing down and I can no longer see." Moving over, Sam did as Barricade asked stroking the cool metal face of his onetime foe. Barricade let out a sigh through his vents.

"Thank you, Sam. Thank you, my friend."

There was no warning, no alarms, no gasping or crying out, just a searing flash of bright light that Sam saw reflected on the metal of Barricade's face, and a warmth on his back. Sam turned, one hand still resting on Barricade's face, and he saw the light dissipate like smoke and fade upwards towards the sky. Barricade's chest plates hung loosely apart.

"Barricade?" Sam cried, once again tapping the mech on the cheeks. Sam did this for five minutes, before realising that no amount of tapping would do any good.

Barricade was gone.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ten minutes later, Bumblebee drove into the town, as it had been verified that the Decepticons were retreating, not feinting for a counterattack. He saw Sam bent over the face of a dead mech Bumblebee recognised as Barricade. He was leaning his arms on the mech, his head on his arms, and was shaking slightly. Concerned, Bumblebee converted to robot form.

"Sam? Are you okay?" the yellow scout asked. Sam stood up and turned, and Bumblebee's alarm grew as he saw that Sam's eyes were bloodshot, the skin around them red and puffy, his cheeks covered in fluid.

"Sam! Your optical sensors! They're red and leaking! Are you unwell?"

Sam brought up a sleeve of his hoodie up, wiping tears and mucus from his nose off his face, and sniffed. He took a shuddering breath, and then spoke.

"It's okay 'Bee, I'm just crying, its something humans sometimes do when someone dies." He motioned towards Barricade.

"I don't do it often, but I do at times like this, when that someone was a friend."


	7. It's Not A Question Of Gender

Sam's Snippets.

It's Not A Question Of Gender.

Summary: When Sam got too old as a human to keep on living, the AllSpark remade him into a Cybertronian mech. As Sam is about to find out, gender on Cybertron is not the same as gender on Earth.

Rating: T

Warnings: A bit cracky? Definitely slashy.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Paramount/Dreamworks and Hasbro/Takara, not me, which is fortunate for the characters…

It's Not A Question Of Gender.

Setting: About eighty years after the events of the 07 Movie.

"_Another_ health check?" groused Sam. "I had one three months ago. _And_ three months before that. And three months before _that _one, too. Even as a geriatric human I never got _that_ many check-ups."

"Ratchet just wants to make sure there are no lingering effects of your change from human to Cybertronian, that's all, Sam," Bumblebee explained as he walked down with him. "After this he'll probably drop them down to every six months or so for ten years, then annually for about fifty. Then, apart from after battles or if you've taken damage, you'll only be required once a vorn for a general once-over."

"Vorn?" asked Sam in confusion.

"I forgot, you're still getting used to our time-measurements. You've not lived full-time at the Base till now, you stayed with Mikaela till she died and by then your children had their own lives. A vorn is eighty-three human years."

"I miss Mikaela - but then, I've got _you_," Sam said, cuddling Bumblebee. That, Sam reflected, was the upside of the AllSpark changing him at the point of death into one of its children. Not only did he not have to leave behind a grieving Bumblebee, but he could have a proper, full on, no-holds-barred Cybertronian relationship with his yellow friend, up to and including Sparkmerge.

Bumblebee hugged Sam back: he had no complaints at all with the AllSpark's work: Sam's mech-body was pleasing to the optics, not so different to Jazz's. Sam had even taken the same alt, a Pontiac Solstice, but he was a deep blue, to avoid confusion. Jazz had tried to encourage him to be silver - 'Think of the pranks we could play!' - but Sam had politely declined. Jazz might be immune to Prowl's sharp tongue but Sam wasn't.

Sam huffed through his vents as they reached the medical bay.

"Okay, let's get this over with," he said as they walked in.

Ratchet's sharp audios picked up the complaint.

"Look Sam, it's just three scans and a few systems tweaks if needed. You're as bad as Prime, you should hear _him_ when it's his time for a check up, you'd think I was doing a full dismantle and rebuild the way he carries on."

Sam couldn't help but smile.

"There are worse mechs I could emulate," he said innocently. "Like Ironhide?"

Ratchet's only reply was to snort and motion Sam to stand in the scanning cubicle. He stood in front of Sam, began running the scans. Midway through the third scan, Sam saw Ratchet's optics widen and his metal brows crawl up towards where his hairline would be if he had hair.

"Can I run that scan again, Sam?" he asked.

"Uh, sure doc, is something wrong?" Sam asked, getting worried.

"Not _wrong_, Sam," Ratchet said as he began repeating the scan. "Just…anomalous, different from your last readings, there's nothing _wrong_, I just want to check something." For a few moments, the only sound was Ratchet's humming scanning-beam. Then Ratchet nodded and turned it off, and to Sam's surprise, beamed happily at him.

"I _thought _so!" He moved over and clapped Sam on the shoulder. "Come with me, Sam, and may I be the first to extend my congratulations."

"Congratulations?" Sam asked in confusion as Ratchet almost dragged him over to a storage cabinet. "Congratulations for what?"

"For you and Bumblebee." Ratchet said, his voice muffled as he bent down to rummage on the shelves. "Ah, I _knew_ I had some ready!" he said, straightening up with an armful of small forms, which he scattered on the worktop in front of Sam.

Sam stared at the empty and brightly-coloured sparkling bodies in growing confusion.

"Uh, Ratchet, what's going on, what's this about?"

"Well, are you going to choose one of those or do you have a custom build in mind?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm sorry, what do you _mean_?" said Sam, oblivious to the sudden look of stunned comprehension that was stealing over Bumblebee's face.

"Sam, your sparkling will need it's own body at sometime, but I guess you don't have to choose now, it's early days yet. You're carrying, Sam, you're carrying what I presume is yours and Bumblebee's sparkling."

Whatever Sam had expected, it wasn't _that_. His mouth dropped open and he stared at Ratchet. He was startled out of his stunned inactivity as with a joyful squeal Bumblebee threw his arms around Sam's waist, lifted him off his feet, and began to jump and spin around the room with him, humming on his plating and squealing in what Sam recognised as happiness. "We're having a sparkling!" the scout squealed in joy.

"Hey, hey, _hey! _'Bee, put me down a moment buddy, please, I need to _think_!" he said. Bumblebee put him down, his optics dimming.

"Don't - didn't you want this for us, Sam?" he said unhappily.

"It - its not _that_, Bee, I'm confused, give me a moment." He turned to Ratchet.

"Let me get this straight, okay? Are you trying to tell me I'm _pregnant?" _

"Well, I guess that's the human term, yes," Ratchet said. "There is a new extra Spark in your chest. When it's strong enough I can take it out and put it in one of these bodies. Cliffjumper and I crafted them all carefully, but you don't need to choose right now if you don't want to."

"But…I am a mech right, I'm _sure_ you said I was a mech?"

"Well, yes Sam, you're a mech, but I don't see what that has to do with our sparkling." Bumblebee said, tentatively touching Sam's shoulder. It was at that moment that Ratchet's eyebrows shot up again.

"I do, Bumblebee," he said. "Sam is confused because with humans, there is a greater distinction than we have between mech and femme. With humans, and most, but not all, biological organisms in the animal subgroup, only the femme organisms are able to naturally carry."

He turned back to the confused Sam.

"Sam, the distinction between mech and femme on Cybertron is not the same as on Earth. 'Mech' and 'femme' relate only to the way the processors are coded, and the body shape." Ratchet told him. "There is no distinction between the sparks. Sometimes a youngling or sparkling will express a preference for a mech of femme frame, when they go into adult bodies they choose their form. That is why only adult frames are differentiated: sparkling and youngling bodies are not differentiated unless the youngling expresses an obvious wish, and the Creators possess the money, or materials and expertise, to commission or make a custom mech or femme youngling frame."

"But - Elita's twins, and Ironhide and Chromia's four young - didn't Chromia and Elita do the carrying?" Sam asked. "I'm _sure_ I heard Bumblebee tell me about Elita carrying one time." Ratchet chuckled.

"Elita's twins? Elita had no twins Sam, true twins arise from one spark splitting into two identical sparklets. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are true twins, but Optimus and Elita's pair are not twins, as we define the term."

"But - they are the same age, right?" Sam asked. "I'm sure 'Bee turned up one day to tell me that Optimus and Elita were now Creators to two sibling-sparklings. How are they not twins?"

"Because Elita and Optimus were _both_ carrying, one each, at the same time." Ratchet said. "The sparklings were taken out of them both on the same day. Having the same Creators, they are siblings, but they were carried by separate people, so they are not twins. As for Chromia and Ironhide's quartet, well, Ironhide carried three of those himself."

Sam sat down.

"I can't imagine Optimus and Ironhide as carriers," he said. "I won't - I mean, human women get big stomachs, and waddle, and want to wee a lot more often, or at least Mikaela did with all of ours. That won't happen to me, will it?"

"Of course not!" snorted Ratchet. "Sparks are just energy, you might occasionally feel warmer to the touch than usual. And before you ask, decanting the Sparkling into its own body won't hurt, either. Carrying isn't really much like human pregnancy and childbirth at all."

"This isn't how I imagined it would be, I guess I just assumed that the birds and the bees was the same for everyone." Sam said.

"The birds and the bees aren't Cybertronian, Sam." Ratchet explained with a smile. "With our kind, who carries is not just a question of gender."

"So what is it that decides who carries?" Sam asked

"Nobody knows, really, Sam," Ratchet said. "You get some, like Optimus and Elita, where both partners get with Spark at about the same time. Sometimes it is a toss-up, one or the other will. Then sometimes it's one partner who consistently carries and we still don't know why. Many of our knowledge of Cybertronian natural reproduction was lost once the AllSpark began to be widely used. Sometimes, considering the subject became taboo, considered sacrilegious, I wonder if the loss was deliberate."

Sam stood again.

"Well, I guess I knew being an Autobot would be radically different from being a human," Sam said, wandering back over to the assorted sparkling frames. "I just never realised just _how_ different. I guess I still have a lot to learn." He beckoned over Bumblebee. "So, which one do you think we should choose for our sparkling?" he asked the yellow scout.

Bumblebee's arm extended and his finger pointed to a blue and yellow frame near the edge.

"That one!" Bumblebee said.

oOo---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------oOo-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------oOo

A/N: Anyone familiar with my stories will know that I usually write stories where there _is_ differentiation like humans, between mech and femme genders. Just for the fun aspect, I set this in a version of the TF-verse where there is not. Sam's reaction to finding out he's pregnant? Too priceless to not write it.

Surprise!


	8. Ripe For Harvest

Ripe for Harvest.

Summary: What if Sam's contact with the AllSpark had given him a vastly expanded life-span? What if Sam lived to see humans abandon Earth when it became uninhabitable? Oneshot.

Rating: T for safety.

Continuity: 07/09 Movieverse.

Disclaimer: Transformers is and remains the property of Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, no matter how much I wish otherwise… :)

A/N: This is one of two stories from bunnies offered to me by ReflectionsOfReality that share very similar plots but are significantly different.

Ripe For Harvest.

Several Million Years From Today.

Sam stood on the surface of a planet that had been deserted by its dominant species. What little life remained was doomed in a few months anyway, when the Solar System's Sun swelled into a red giant before cooling down to become a white dwarf. He knew the fleeing humans had taken examples of all the species they felt worth saving with them, and likely as not a few they had not planned on keeping around, such as flies and parasitic worms.

He appeared to be in his mid-twenties, in the prime of his life, and this was the last time he would gaze upon his world. He was, however, millions of years old, still human, but he had no idea when he would die. It might be something that would never happen, for the AllSpark energy that had fled to his body during the Mission City battle was constantly repairing and renewing the tissues of his body, and stopping the aging process in its tracks.

Although she was long dust, Sam could still remember his first wife, Mikaela, and all those who had followed. None of them had been granted his extended lifespan, and after a while he began to avoid emotional entanglements with his own kind, because watching them age and die became too painful. For the same reason he did not keep in contact with any of his descendants, whom he was sure must now number in the hundreds.

He looked up at the large yellow form beside him, the Autobot scout Bumblebee. He was, in the units his race measured time in, like Sam, an adult at the peak of his life, a little more sedate than when Sam had first met him, but still otherwise the same friend Sam had first got to know. Along with the other Autobots, he had stayed Sam's friend when Sam shunned his own kind to save himself emotional pain when they died.

"Sam, are you sure you want to do this?" Bumblebee said, and Sam realised that Bumblebee had taken his lapse into silence as second thoughts and hesitation. He shook his head.

"Yes, Bee, I'm sure. You know what Starscream told us, there are lives riding on this. This planet is dying, what's left of the life on it will be dead soon, the Sun has already begun to swell. In a few months it'll be uninhabitable." Sam wiped away the sweat on his neck.

Egypt had always been hot when his age could still be counted in double figures, now, with the Sun beginning the process that would engulf the planet, it was almost unbearable. He looked back up at the half-demolished pyramid, with the Sun Harvester still half-exposed.

After the events surrounding the resurrection of Megatron and the revelation of the existence of the Fallen, the world had at first wanted to break it apart. Then somebody had decided that as there was no way of reactivating it with the Matrix gone, it would make an impressive tourist attraction, and the rest of the world agreed. With the aid of the Autobots, they had repaired it, and constructed a dummy Matrix, so people could go up and look around it, and then have their photo taken with it, holding the dummy Matrix as if they were about to activate the Harvester.

Sometimes, although human himself, Sam had found other humans incomprehensible.

He began to climb up the stairway built over the slope of the pyramid to get to the top of the pyramid, recalling the words of the Dynasty of Primes.

"The Matrix cannot be found. It must be earned."

He hoped that in his life he had done enough to earn it again, because lives were dependant upon it.

Reaching the top, he found the compartment where the Matrix was supposed to go, and the shrivelled scrap of twisted material that had been put in a box, on display, all that was left of the Matrix. He unslung the laser scalpel he had 'borrowed' from Ratchet before coming here, and sliced the side off the box, seizing the lump of destroyed Matrix from its pedestal. He closed his hands over it, thought hard about what he wished to do and why, the lives that would benefit from his plans.

He felt the lump shift in his hand, realised that his actions were valid, that his plans had been accepted by the Dynasty. Opening his eyes, he saw he was holding the Matrix as it had been, a beautiful, alien fusion of mineral and metal. He took a deep breath. This was it. This was crunch time. This was the last time he would have a chance to bottle out.

He looked out again, over the almost-deserted landscape, the bulk of the Autobot vessel, the _Ark_, dominating the land around. Sam smiled at the irony of that name, for the vessel had just spent the better part of the last hundred years living up to that name, ferrying as much of the life the humans had left behind as was possible to another world, where it was hoped it could flourish and grow. Now it waited for only two more refugees from the dying planet to board it, and those two were himself and Bumblebee.

Crouching, Sam activated the slot at the centre of the machine and inserted the Matrix. As the slot closed up without even a seam to show where it had been, Sam looked up and spread his arms, as if to embrace the doomed red orb in the sky.

"From your death, you bring life," he said. "Lightbringer, life-bringing Sun, your inevitable death will occur a little faster this way, but your energy will not be wasted." Although there was nobody to see him except Bee, he suddenly felt a little foolish, and he dropped his arms. He took a final look as the Harvester began to hum and glow, and then suddenly realised that moving might be a good idea.

Scrambling back down the stairs, half on his feet and half on his bottom, Sam ran over to Bumblebee, who had already folded down into his antigrav-car alt mode.

"Come on, Bee, let's get back to the _Ark_, shall we?" Sam asked.

Bumblebee lifted a door to allow Sam entry, closed it once he was in, and sped off. Sam looked out of his window as they headed for the _Ark. _Behind them, the pyramid's crown was obscured by a white corona as the Harvester prepared to unleash it's power upon the aged Sun.

Bumblebee didn't bother slowing or converting, shooting up the ramp which immediately closed behind them, for the Autobots personally thought this idea left so little room for error that they should get things done as fast as possible in case there was any delay. As Bee came to a halt, Sam could hear nothing but the roar of the _Ark's _rockets as they propelled them into the sky. Sam climbed out of Bee, and down a huge corridor until he got to a place where Bee could lift him up to the window.

They stood there, watching, and for a long while, they could see nothing different, as the _Ark_ climbed away from the Earth and moved out into the solar system. Then, a white lance of light leaped up from the surface of the planet and arrowed across space. It struck the red Sun, which shone brighter for an instant before the whole star began to darken as the white beam grew thicker and stronger.

Sam knew that even now the Harvester had opened a space bridge to the almost-empty energon tanks of the ship the Prime Dynasty had arrived on, and the Sun's energy was now filling those tanks, having been first converted to the vital energon the hatchlings in the ship needed for survival. As if his thought had been a cue, the ship's intercom system crackled to life, as the Sun finally darkened, a spent, cooling cinder with dead planets scattered around it.

"Sam, I thought you should know." came Ratchet's voice over the intercom system. "We've just had an incoming communication from Starscream. The hatchlings are strengthening, they should soon be able to come out of their pods. It worked, Sam, the hatchlings will all live!"

"Thanks, Ratchet," Sam said, then looked out once again at the now-invisible solar system he had once called home.

His tears of sadness for the necessity of that final sacrifice mixed with those of joy for the lives that sacrifice had secured.


	9. Early Harvest

Early Harvest.

Summary: Sam's contact with the AllSpark has granted him a vastly extended life, but what if he outlives his own species? Oneshot.

Rating: M for dark themes.

Continuity: Movieverse.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not I.

A/N: The second of two similar bunnies offered to me by ReflectionsOfReality.

Early Harvest.

Sam could not have said if the increased lifespan bestowed on him by the AllSpark would have saved him from the explosive forces or radiation associated with a nuclear war. He never got to find out, because he was absent when the leader of one country of the planet became angry at the rest of the word and attacked many other countries with nuclear warheads, and the other countries retaliated in kind.

He had been gone a mere twenty years or so when the bombs had been launched. Unknowing, he'd stayed away for most of a century, happy to be helping the Autobots find a new world of their own to move to. Although the USA was happy to have the Autobots on Earth at first, events during the Fallen's brief but destructive return had demonstrated that their presence could very quickly become offensive to some. The Autobots had no desire to outstay their welcome.

When the _Ark_ returned to Earth to see how it was, they found a charred ruin, the malformed creatures scurrying amongst the ruins of Earth's cities barely alive. Ratchet had captured some live specimens to study them. Some of them were corruptions of domestic stock, others the unrecognisable descendants of the wildlife. Still others were the descendants of those irradiated humans who had not only survived, but somehow succeeded in bringing forth issue, issue that bore little resemblance to the original appearance of those who had birthed them.

One woman, who was still recognisable as being from human stock, was pregnant, and Ratchet brought her on board to have her offspring. It was, unfortunately, stillborn, for the many and numerous deformities the child was blighted with - among them supernumerary vestigial limbs - were incompatible with life. The woman herself also died, Ratchet discovering too late that the high levels of radiation that were still present in the sterile soil had given her an illness that stopped her blood clotting.

Ratchet had euthanized those he had found to be suffering from incurable illness or deformity, had carried out treatment on those he could, although he found little signs of intelligence in any of them, and his studies suggested that most of them were infertile. His scans of the planet and the life left upon it had determined that the life on it would die out within two hundred years, the residual radiation from the nuclear blitzkrieg the planet had unleashed upon itself sterilising the remaining organic inhabitants. Many of those that lived were suffering, and it was Sam who had stepped up with a possible solution.

For that reason, he was the one who was stood by the Sun Harvester, which had escaped destruction due to the pyramid that had been re-erected around it prior to the war, with a new Matrix in his hands that he had used the AllSpark energy within him to create. He blinked away tears as he stooped to insert the Matrix into the space for it. He recalled how he had fought years before to stop the Fallen from doing likewise. How ironic that he was the one who would now activate the Harvester and destroy the world he had once called home.

He didn't stop to watch as the Harvester accepted the new Matrix and began powering up, but scrambled down the blocks that had recently been torn down by a team of Autobots provided by Optimus.

It was Bumblebee who met him at the bottom and took him quickly back to the_ Ark_, which launched off. It was Bumblebee who took Sam to a bed Ratchet had prepared for him, and Bumblebee who held the human who, when told that the hatchlings on board the ship would live thanks to the energon, wept bitterly for the human lives that could have been.


	10. Back To Factory Settings

Sam's Snippets.

Back To Factory Settings.

Summary: A.U, alternate '07 Movie ending. What if the destruction of the AllSpark also damaged Sam? What if the AllSpark used it's power to save both the Cybertronian and the human, but cannot save them as they are?

Rating: T for safety.

Continuity: 07 Movieverse

Disclaimer: Dreamworks/Paramount and Hasbro own Transformers. I do not.

Back To Factory Settings.

As he saw Megatron towering above him, Sam knew that if he pushed the AllSpark into Optimus' chest that the Autobot leader would die, and the enraged Megatron would ensure that Sam would follow, and the rest of humanity would suffer too. He couldn't do it.

An idea occurred to him, one that could go wrong in too many ways. It was madness to even think of it, but Sam was out of sane options. Before he could allow himself to feel fear and bottle out, Sam darted forwards with the AllSpark held in front of him.

'_You want the AllSpark, Megatron?'_ he thought grimly. _'Well that's exactly what you're going to get!'_

At that moment the Autobot leader spotted the running human, and must have guessed his intentions.

"Sam, _no_!" he cried, but by then it was too late: Sam had thrust the Cube into the hole the Air Force had punched into the Decepticon leader's chest.

Megatron let out a guttural cry composed of pain and rage as the Cube made contact with his Spark. Red and blue gouts of energy flared within his chest, raced all along the surface of the Cube, and down the hands of the human, engulfing his frail form. Sam screamed as his body stiffened and began to shrivel, turning his head to look at Optimus although his eyes had shrivelled to nothing. As his hands withered, he dropped the shard that was all that remained of the Cube, and toppled to the ground, much as Megatron was doing. Starscream soared overhead, saw the scene below, and screeched up into the upper atmosphere as fast as his afterburners would take him.

Optimus took a step towards the human, but was stopped by Ratchet.

"Optimus, he cannot have survived that, and there is still energy around him. We do not know what those released energies might do to you, you might die too." Optimus lowered his head regretfully, knowing that Ratchet was right but hurting nonetheless.

"He was an unwitting innocent, dragged into this war through no fault of his own." he said regretfully. "He will be remembered by those of us who survived as a brave fighter, who made the ultimate sacrifice for us and for his own world."

It was only when Ratchet began scanning that Optimus realised something was going on, and he lifted his head again to look at the bodies of Megatron and Sam. What he saw made him stare and activate his own scans.

Blue lightning flickered around and over both the Cybertronian and the human. Optimus' scans registered AllSpark energy, an energy signature that all Cybertronians knew and had been searching for for so long they would likely even recognise it while in recharge. As he watched, the forms began to change, both in different ways.

Megatron was shrinking rapidly, not changing shape but reducing in size, while Sam also reduced in stature but seemed to thicken out. As Megatron's blasted-off leg began to re-grow, and his injuries filled with light and were healed, Sam's damaged flesh also began to change.

His skin darkened, swelled and then solidified, gleaming smooth and silver, the metal replacing his skin and muscle. His head swelled sideways and bulged upwards, as his facial features began to change and distort. Organic material was replaced by mechanical equivalents here, too, as his arms and legs thickened, his feet grew, his hands and fingers elongated, and his chest grew rounder and wider as Bumblebee drew to a half beside them, and Ironhide stepped up holding the two halves of Jazz.

"What the-?" the Weapons Specialist asked as Bumblebee gave a querying warble.

"I'm still working that out myself," Ratchet said, pointing to the two figures in turn. "That's Megatron, that's Sam. Sam pushed the AllSpark into Megatron's chest. They both fell to the ground. Then this began."

As he finished speaking, the lightning faded and died. Ratchet, not heeding his own advice, started towards the two clicking, wriggling figures on the ground, the two almost-identical mechs who only seemed to be about five feet high or so, but otherwise shaped like Megatron in miniature.

Ratchet quickly picked them up, one in each arm, and scanned them both briefly, then looked up at Optimus.

"It seems that Sam and Megatron have been turned into sparklings." he said. "Much preferable to the alternative." He passed the Sam-sparkling to Optimus while he tipped Megatron onto his back and inspected his plating carefully.

"All the damage has been repaired, his systems appear to be functioning at top efficiency, he's as healthy a sparkling as I've ever seen." he pronounced. He looked up at where Optimus was holding Sam in his arms, protectively but gingerly. Ratchet sighed and plonked the little Megatron into Bumblebee's hands, much to the scout's surprise, and moved over to adjust Optimus' hold on the Sam-sparkling.

"Move your arm up a bit, that's right, closer to your chest, he'll be warmed by your Spark," Ratchet said as he manoeuvred Optimus' arms into a position that made the sparkling feel safer.

"Oh come on, you're acting as if you've never held a sparkling before!" he said in exasperation at Optimus' clumsiness.

"That is probably because I _have_ never held one, at least not like this and for this long," Optimus replied. Ratchet turned and gave Optimus a level stare as if waiting for him to say 'just kidding', then sighed.

"Okay. Hold it high up and close to your chest so it feels secure." Ratchet instructed, before picking up the tiny sparkling-Megatron, which whirred irritably, having been jolted out of the recharge it had slipped into in the palms of Bumblebee's large, warm, and reliable hands.

Bumblebee wasted no time once the sparkling was removed: he went over to where Optimus was still trying to calm sparkling-Sam and held out his arms. Handing over the sparkling, Optimus noted how he settled in Bumblebee's hands, before Bumblebee transferred the sparkling in a movement as natural as Optimus had ever seen, to the crook of his arm and began to coo. Bumblebee saw Optimus watching and said "What?"

"You seem to know how to hold sparklings, yet since we found you, you have been the youngest of our group. How do you know how to hold sparklings?" Optimus asked. Bumblebee blinked rapidly, and Optimus realised the scout was upset. What had he said?

"My Creators had two younger sparklings before the war began," Bumblebee explained. "I used to help my Creator care for them, he appreciated the help and said I was a 'natural.'" The scout paused again, shifting Sam, who was rapidly heading for recharge, to a more comfortable position.

"When the war started, life became hard for everyone, but it was the young who suffered first," he continued. "Our Creator was killed while holding the oldest, who also died, and I was left to care for the youngest." Again he paused, his optics dimming as he directed them towards the ground.

"I could not find enough energon to feed him with. For myself, the feedback from my Spark sufficed for my energy needs, but he was too young." Bumblebee blinked again. "He went into stasis lock, and then he died."

Optimus did not know how to react, but put a hand out to grip Bumblebee's shoulder. He was saved from having to utter some supposedly-comforting but likely useless platitude by Ratchet.

"We need to get them back to somewhere we can make sparkling-grade formula: may I suggest we ask Captain Lennox to ask for such a space, and some fuel?" Ratchet tapped his own chest. "I have the components I need to brew sparkling-grade in my redundant systems."

Optimus nodded, turning from Ratchet, and made the call to Captain Lennox. Within a half-hour, a place had been agreed, and Bumblebee moved into his position at the middle of the convoy as they rolled out, heading for it.

In his back seat, optics tightly shuttered in recharge, lay the curled-up forms of Sam and Megatron.


	11. A Total Reboot

Sam's Snippets.

A Total Reboot.

Summary: What if the AllSpark had not wished to be destroyed or be used to destroy any more of it's creations? What if it stopped things a different way?

Rating: T for safety

Disclaimer: None of the Transformers or their squishy companions/opponents belong to me, they belong to people with a lot more money.

A/N: To avoid treading on toes, I'm using Sanjuno's sparkling-protection Seeker programming as a way of avoiding plagiarising a fellow writer's idea.

A Total Reboot.

Sam scrambled to avoid the feet and other parts of the two faction leaders as they fought above him. In a battle, a mis-step could be fatal, and knowing Optimus hadn't _meant _to step on him would be scant comfort if he were dead.

"Shit!" he muttered as a shadow fell over him, and he dodged just in time to avoid being stomped on by Megatron. Again, it would not have been intentional, the Decepticon and the Autobot were equally matched, and neither could allow themselves any distractions, but unlike Optimus, Megatron would certainly not regret it.

Sam managed to drop into a trench in the road, created, he guessed, by bombs or weaponry. Water from broken pipes flowed, creating a shallow but muddy river. Sam stopped for a moment to catch his breath, catching water trickling from the pipe to splash on his face.

As the two massive figures clashed again, and the Air Force rained down its missiles on Megatron, Sam felt the Cube in his hands grow warm. Looking down, he saw it didn't look any different, but then he felt the warmth spreading up his arm, could see the almost-invisible blue energy as it progressed up his body.

Panicked, he tried to drop the Cube and found he couldn't: as the energy raced up his neck he felt something poking at the barriers to his mind. He fought it, terrified of this alien intrusion, but then he felt a reassuring mental caress, an unspoken assurance that everything would be alright, he would not be harmed, he was needed for just a moment.

Realising it was futile to fight the presence, as it had already gained entrance, and wanting to trust the other in his head who seemed to understand he was scared and wanted to help, he sighed, and let it do what it wanted.

His last thought before blackness took over was to wonder just what the AllSpark wanted him for.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Nobody noticed the human stop and his eyes glaze over, as everybody was too busy fighting or - in the case of Ratchet and Ironhide - trying to save the Spark of the torn-apart Jazz. Nobody noticed him straighten up, with the AllSpark clasped between his hands and held aloft above his head. What drew their attention was his loud shut of "**Enough is enough!**"

It was not just the volume of the shout, nor the content, but the language it was spoken in, that made everybody stop and turn to stare at the human boy. The language he had spoken in was slurred but recognisable Cybertronian, sounds that generally had no business coming from a human throat. Several sets of optics registered the human boy standing tall, with the AllSpark held aloft, registered the corona of white that briefly outlined his body.

There was no change in Sam's stance, no other warning, but the AllSpark gave a sudden and powerful pulse. Two thick blue tendrils of lightning leaped out from the Cube, each streaking unerringly towards a mech. They struck the battling leaders, one striking Megatron in the back, the other hitting Optimus' helm, and the two were lit up, then fell to the ground, still holding on to each other.

Sam sagged as the light left him. He lowered the AllSpark, staggered back, and sat down. Confusion clouded his eyes and he shook his head, staring at the Cube in his hand. He could feel its warmth, was aware that time had passed, but his memory of the incident was a blank. The Essence had left his mind, leaving him, as promised, unharmed, but very confused.

"What…what happened?" he asked. The fighting seemed to have ceased, although he could hear whirrs and clanks and clicking sounds. Tucking the Cube beneath his arm, He climbed up cautiously.

The first thing he saw was Ratchet, who was crouching down and looking at something in front of him. The only Decepticons in sight appeared to be dead.

Sam climbed out of the trench and approached Ratchet. As he drew level with the medic, he saw what he was looking at.

"What the _hell_?" he blurted out. "_What happened?"_

"_You_ did," Ratchet explained. "You and the AllSpark. I theorise that the AllSpark figured that as Optimus and Megatron were squabbling like sparklings, that it might as well make them just that."

Sam stared at the two small mechs in front of him. On their feet, they would probably stand just a little smaller than Sam was himself. At the moment they were sat on the ground, clinging tightly, their arms around each other, looking frightened and confused. Although smaller than they had been, and their features more soft and child-like, they were recognisably the ex-Lord High Protector and the Prime. As Sam watched, the Optimus-sparkling gave a squeak of fright and buried his face in Megatron's faceplates, clicking in distress.

"Hush, hush, I know he's ugly and soft, but he won't hurt you," soothed Ratchet.

"Ugly? I take offense at that," Sam said.

"Like all Sparklings, it seems anything they see as different is odd or at worst ugly," Ratchet explained. "It seems their memories, of you and the conflict on this planet at least, have been removed." As Optimus risked a peek, Ratchet started his engine in an attempt to calm the little Prime, as he continued to address Sam. "He finds you frightening because you're so different. The Internet tells me that human sparklings are not so different in their reactions to the unusual and unknown."

At that moment, there was the sound of descending jet engines, and Sam scrambled backwards, looking for cover, as Starscream landed nearby and scuttled towards them. He actually stopped closer to Sam than the boy was comfortable with, but even Sam could see that he only had optics for the sparklings.

"Is that Optimus and Megatron?" he asked, reaching down digits to caress the face of each sparkling in turn. The two looked upwards and cooed at the gentle touches.

"It is," said Ratchet, who seemed all too relaxed for Sam's liking. Starscream could easily grab at Optimus and kill him, Optimus was all but defenceless. Although the gesture was almost useless, Sam moved to stand between Starscream and the sparklings, holding the cube.

"If you try to hurt them, you'll have to get through me," he said.

Starscream could have laughed or taken Sam's challenge up, but he did neither. He trained his optics on Sam and put a hand to his chestplates.

"Sam, I would never harm either of them. They are _sparklings_. What do you take me for?"

"You're also a Decepticon, and from what I understand, you have no love for Optimus. I won't just stand here and let you do something to him while he's defenceless!" Sam stated sharply.

"Sam, if anyone tries to hurt either of them, I will rip them limb from limb," Starscream stated with such sincerity that Sam could not doubt him. Looking around in confusion, Sam caught sight of Ratchet's face, and the big grin spreading over it.

"What's so funny?" he asked. He was beginning to wonder if he was the butt of some private joke.

"Sam, Starscream won't hurt either of them," Ratchet explained, turning to the confused human. "Seekers were originally programmed as sparkling-protectors. That programming can be suppressed or overlaid to an extent, but the moment sparklings are present, that programming becomes active and associated programming destroys any attempts to overlay or overwrite it." Ratchet used a hand to indicate the Seeker's alertness and body language, even as Starscream bent to coo at the little ones again. "Those sparklings are safer now with him here than they were before he arrived."

Starscream turned just his head to look over his shoulder at Ratchet as he let the sparklings grab at his fingers.

"Let me take Megatron, and raise him." Starscream said. "You know I'll be a capable Creator. Megatron never had much of a sparklinghood, he told me once. Let me give him that, at least."

Ratchet nodded slowly. "Very well, but if you have any problems with him, repairs needed or you can't get fuel, I want you to bring him back to me, and I'll help you out."

"Thank you," Starscream said, gathering the sparkling-Megatron in his arms. Both he and the sparkling Optimus whimpered, and Ratchet moved to scoop up Optimus as Starscream stroked and soothed the little Megatron.

"It's okay," the Seeker shushed. "You can see your friend again soon." He looked at Ratchet who gave a short nod and said something similar to Optimus. A few more promises to the two and some more comforting words later, and Starscream left, Megatron cradled in his long arms, held securely against his chest, just over his Spark.

Starscream had no sooner left than Ironhide came over with the inert pieces of Jazz. The Weapons Specialist put the two halves and broken-off limbs on the ground, saw the sparkling in Ratchet's arms, and demanded an explanation. It wasn't long before Bumblebee, Mikeala, Lennox and Epps joined them, and Ratchet went back to the beginning to explain.

Warmth in his hands startled Sam, and he looked down at the cube he still held to see it glowing. A gentle tendril of light wandered down to touch Jazz, and as Sam watched the torn metal began to twist and repair itself, the detached limbs became reattached. Then Jazz's visor lit up and he sat up and said "Hey! What's goin' on? Did I miss the battle?"

As everyone gathered around Jazz and asked what happened, Sam explained it from his perspective. It was Ratchet who called a halt to the hubbub by sounding his sirens for attention.

"Everyone, I think it is unwise to stand out in the open discussing this. I suggest we find some shelter and sort it out," the medic stated.

"My Government can get you a permanent place, but for now I have just received authority from SecDef Keller to allocate you a spare hangar at Nellis as a temporary base," Lennox called up to the assembled 'bots. "They too would rather you were away from prying eyes."

"Then may I suggest that we finish this discussion once we get there?" Ratchet asked. "With Optimus no longer able to command, I'll take command temporarily. Bumblebee and I are both captains, we'll sort out any other hierarchy later."

He turned to look at Ironhide.

"Ironhide, you take Will and Epps and lead the way to Nellis," he said. He pointed to Jazz. "You're behind him, you can carry Optimus, then it's me, I want to keep an eye on you." He pointed to Bumblebee, then indicated Sam and Mikaela. "You take the children, with the Cube, and bring up the rear, the other human Army personnel can guard your rear in their car. Any questions or objections?"

There were none, and within fifteen minutes the convoy was ready. Lennox looked out, raised his arm out of the window and said "Okay, let's get moving." He dropped his arm, and at that signal the whole convoy began the long trip back to Nellis.


End file.
